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Right! ... back from travels and got some chance to hook it all up and have a play around over the weekend.
First, here is the thing I got: HTC Vive[^]
Yes, a serious piece of kit and mad money .... but it was recently Christmas, hence.... 
Overall, it took about an hour to setup. Comprises headset, two hand-controls, and two boxes you setup on stands (or fix to the wall) that are called 'base stations' ... they basically track where you are in the room *very well*
Downloading the initial setup files and a few games took another couple of hours (best start this thing early in the day!)
The headset is a bit heavy after a while... not only heavy, but front-heavy, so can be tiring after a while.... they will improve over time as the the tech gets smaller etc. It has a long cable to hook back to the graphics card ... my understanding is there is already a wireless one int he works.
then I tried it ... wow
just
wow....
really, seriously, wow....
I didn't experience any eye strain ...or dizzyness, and this is in the full stand-up,'room scale' immersive experience.... you walk around (in a restricted space) and it tracks your movement perfectly... if you have someone in the room with you (useful, to watch the cables dragging on the floor etc, at least while you are getting used to the thing) they can see what you are doing on your monitor.
The couple of initial games I got were really good ... I then got a space-sim and wow - dizzy central! ... very hard to orientate myself in space, and this was sitting down at the desk, not standing ... not sure if that's anything to do with it.
Content overall excellent, but I did go for the best rated games first. Highly recommended if you have the cash to spare (or a gift day coming up and have lots of brownie points in your favor!!!) 
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I got Catherine the Samsung Gear VR 2 and am rather impressed by it - well, all except for the rubbish search for apps facility. As a test, loaded the Jurassic World VR - it's really very good.
This space for rent
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No, not that I'll have to talk to Herself and watch TV tonight, though that's pretty bad.
Not that I can't get at emails once my PC is off - I can do that on the phone.
It's that I'm careful with my kit: this tablet is four+ years old, goes everywhere with me, has no case or screen protector. And it's scratch free. Chip free. The battery still holds a full days charge.
And I'm going to have to take an axe to it because it has all my bank account details and contactless payment, and I can't reset it to factory defaults unless it turns on. 
For comparison, Herself's tablet is on its second screen and it's only just over a year old... 
How well do you treat your kit, out of interest?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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OriginalGriff wrote: treat your kit
I do not have a tablet but I treat all of my equipment as well as I can. My Kindle is 5+ years old and still works as well as it did when brand new. My monitors are both 5+ years old and work just as well. If I replaced the scratch guard on my phone, it would look brand new also. The only thing I currently own that does not act brand new is one TV has developed an annoying habit of turning itself on.
Speed of sound - 1100 ft/sec
Speed of light - 186,000 mi/sec
Speed of stupid - instantaneous.
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NotPolitcallyCorrect wrote: one TV has developed an annoying habit of turning itself on
That's just the ghosts. The afterlife isn't very entertaining.
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Jon McKee wrote: the ghosts
That explains it. I avoid exercise religiously so there is nothing keeping them away. 
Speed of sound - 1100 ft/sec
Speed of light - 186,000 mi/sec
Speed of stupid - instantaneous.
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I don't have a tablet.
But I treat my phones very well. I never had scratches on the glass or elsewhere on the housing even not using some kind of cover. My boss brakes the glass of his phones at least two times a year.
It happened a few times that the phone slipped out of my hands. But that was luckily always outdoor when on grass.
My actual phone will hopefully last long. It has been replaced under warranty in November just before the two year warranty period was over.
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Badly. To be correct: I treat them carefully and after two weeks they look a year old. My GF treats them carefully and after a year they look new.
DURA LEX, SED LEX
GCS d--- s-/++ a- C++++ U+++ P- L- E-- W++ N++ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t++ 5? X R++ tv-- b+ DI+++ D++ G e++>+++ h--- ++>+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP. -- TNCaver
When I was six, there were no ones and zeroes - only zeroes. And not all of them worked. -- Ravi Bhavnani
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Since you have to kill it anyway why not open it up and see if you can fix it yourself. Almost certainly a circuit protection fuse blown..?
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Partly I can't find my tablet opening tools, without which I'll just break the display trying to open it, and partly ... have you seen the inside of these things? 
OK, it's all SMT for space reasons, but the level of integration is amazing! And even if a fuse is responsible, the PCB is so thin and delicate that my ham-fisted soldering techniques would only make things worse. 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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OriginalGriff wrote: I can't find my tablet opening tools
Just look in the file of where to find things that is on your tablet. Oh....
Mongo: Mongo only pawn... in game of life.
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Get some new tools, you have about a week to kick some life into an overdischarged lithium-ion battery before it starts forming copper shunts.
Those fuses aren't normal fuses by the way, they are protection circuits with the purpose of stopping the batteries from rapid disassembly.
Since the batteries are very finicky about overdischarge, those protection circuits simply disconnect the battery when the voltage goes below a certain level.
But that also means you can't charge it any more.
Solution: open the tablet and charge the battery manually, constant voltage charge at nominal voltage will do fine to get it back to working order.
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It's not the battery - that was charged last night and was fine around 08:00 this morning. It normally lasts 18 or so hours (but not with me using it all the time, obviously) and it yells at me when it gets to 15% left anyway.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Oh, I missed the part about being fine in the morning.
Well, still time for shopping I suppose.
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My phone, slightly scratched, is a year and bit old. It's damage is all from being dropped in the car out of my pocket and falling between the seats. It replaced a four year old smart brick.
I don't have a tablet, but Mrs Wife has a 5 year old ASUS Transformer that's still going strong and Baby has a brand spanking new iPad Mini 4 - we'll see how that one stands up.
My laptop is around 4 years old, needs a new battery but is still going strong. My old lappie is now used by Baby and is about ten years old but still works okay.
I like to go for good kit and make it last. The worst machine I had was Dell it just didn't work for me and I'll not go to them again. I've had 4 Toshibas now.
veni bibi saltavi
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The last time I lost a PC or laptop, it took a SuperStorm and the ocean to wrest them from my grip. That, in 2012, include a box with its original Windows 98 loading (IDE) and a 51/4" floppy drive.
I don't count the laptop battery going bad as my error. Even though I unplug after it's charged and try to drain between charges - well, it's a version of planned obsolescence. At least they've not burst into flames.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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OriginalGriff wrote: goes everywhere with me
So you shower and sleep with your tablet too? What do the tablet kids look like?
Jeremy Falcon
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: What do the tablet kids look like?
I would presume that they are a bit flat.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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Phone is 2 years old and in good shape. I've got it in an el-cheap-o plastic cover, plus a screen protector. It's survived any number of drops and bangs, plus a couple 400 mile tours on the back of my bicycle.
Nexus 7 tablet, a little over 3 years old. I carry it around in a zippered pouch, but don't have any kind of cover or screen protector on it. Still looks like new. Probably because I use it for music at work and Netflix at home when Mrs. Wife wants me in the room but isn't watching something I like.
Software Zen: delete this;
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OriginalGriff wrote: How well do you treat your kit, out of interest?
Not nearly as well as I probably should. Still, others are doing worse--I've never purchased a protective case for anything, and my gadgets all look better than those I've seen owned by friends and relatives.
Worse off though is probably my old 8GB Zune, that I still use daily to listen to podcasts. I purchased it the week MS decided to cut their losses, and local stores were letting them go at deep discounts.
It's been dropped countless time on a hardwood floor, and a concrete patio, and I even accidentally kicked it off the patio and in the dirt in the flowerbed (found it half-buried). That thing JUST. WON'T. DIE.
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My phone is 2.5 years old, and still works and looks as well as when I bought it.
Of course now that I'v said that I'm sure it will break in the next couple days 
Tom
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I have:
- A six year old portable (now used as a desktop machine)
- A one year old portable
- A three year old kindle fire
- A five year old kindle paperwhite
- A three year old phone
The only one that has any sort of mark on it is the six year old portable - I dropped it on its corner a few months ago, and the plastic has a small dent in it.
My eldest daughter, OTOH, has:
- destroyed her first tablet less than a year after purchase
- lost her first phone in the couch cushions (found two years later, when we were thinking of upholstering the couch)
- destroyed another phone by putting it though a washing machine cycle.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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OriginalGriff wrote: because it has all my bank account details and contactless payment
Why would you do that? Not even 2 minutes alone with your tab (or iPad) and crackers can suck everything off it. Only takes one time left behind at a coffee shop, or spotted in in a satchel on a seat while you go to the bathroom. No, pin, thumbprint or squiggle or all 3 put together doesn't help, adds all of about 5 seconds to the operation.
I'm sorry, that is the craziest thing I've seen for a long time, and from an IT professional to boot? No excuses.
Am I paranoid? Well living in Asia and seeing a live demo of me how fast it can be done, no I'm not paranoid at all.
Sin tack ear lol
Pressing the any key may be continuate
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Is your fibula a small lie?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Mine is certainly white.
Cheers,
Mick
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter how often or hard you fall on your arse, eventually you'll roll over and land on your feet.
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